The Moon Society's Vision and Mission Go Well Beyonda First NASA Moonbase, to an International Lunar Research Park

July 20, 2009 - Where we stand

As
we reach the 40th Anniversary of the first manned Moon Landing by the
Apollo 11 crew, we still do not know what direction NASA will be
ordered to take by the Obama Administration. The directive to establish
a permanently manned moonbase, given NASA by former President George W.
Bush, has been essentially gutted by Congress through insufficient
budgeting. It is possible that the anemic Moon program will be allowed
to hobble on. It is also possible that NASA will be redirected to Mars.

The Society cannot entrust fulfilment of its Goals to an Agency that has no control over its own direction.

NASA
had already been forced by Congress to retrench its goals to a
permanent structure that could be revisited, a structure without
biological life support, and without a program to learn how to use
on-site materials. NASA has been forced into a position where, once
again, it was designing a rung without consideration of how it would
lead to the next rung above in the ladder to human occupation of the
Solar System. Similarly, von Braun's dream of a space station that
would serve as a depot and staging point for missions beyond Earth
orbit, had been forced into quite a different role: Earth observation
and remote sensing. While that research is unquestionably valuable,
this first rung in the ladder now leads nowhere.

An International Lunar Research Park

But
the International Space Station has been a great success as a
cooperative effort by several nations. And this international
cooperation is clearly something to build upon. Yet NASA, perhaps
resentful that it must rely on Russian vehicles for Station resupply
and crew changes, seems anxious to avoid such a situation on the Moon
by "going it alone," despite interest shown by the Russia and other
nations eager to participate in a joint program.

The Moon Society, as an International
Organization is dedicated to the opening of the Lunar Frontier to
agencies, corporations, enterprises, and pioneers of all nations.
To this end, our efforts are directed to the promotion of the
concept of an International Lunar Research Park as has been first
sketched in the MMM-India Quarterly, issue #2 pp. 20-25, with an expanded version of this idea in Moon Miners' Manifesto #224 April 2009, pp. 5-6.

Such
a Research Park would be built and maintained by international
contractors, serviced by contractors and enterprises, and provide space
for outposts of various nations, all who choose to collaborate. That
could include the US (NASA's preference to go-it-alone countered by
government directive, Russia, China, India, Japan and perhaps others.

Such
a Research Park would be heavily involved in development of building
materials processed from local moondust and/or moondust imported from
other regions of the Moon with differing chemical and mineralogical
endowments. Roads and perhaps rails would radiate outward from this
Research Park, as human presence on the Moon takes its first steps toward becoming global.

In time, a growing number of civilians would be
working there, some choosing to extend their tours of duty, even
indefinitely, becoming the first lunar pioneers and citizens.
While the various national lunar outposts, by themselves, are
likely to lead to nothing significant, the magical cross-fertilizing
recipe of several agency stations, of contractors and enterprises,
would be poised to transform itself ("morph") over time into the first real lunar
settlement.

The ILRP could be located at one of the Moon's
poles, though higher resolution photographs by Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter are likely to reveal the now-favored Shackleton Rim site as too
uneven, too rocky, too unbuildable, and the nearby water ice deposits
as anything but economically recoverable in the near term. The north pole
has the advantage of being much closer to a mare/highland coast (north
coast of Mare Frigoris.) While "coast" here as an analogous meaning,
nonetheless, as on Earth, coastal areas are likely to be the more
heavily developed and populated over time, and for analogous reasons.

The
Moon Society will continue to support the growing number of announced
Lunar Analog Research Stations. There are so many directions of
research that can be done at these facilities, each differently
endowed, and with differing research programs. We are currently
encouraging an analog research project in central Sweden, and another
in northern Chile. India, Mexico, and Hawaii are likely to host analog
stations. And, of course, we continue to refine our own multi-phase
concept prior to identifying potential sites within the continental
United States, and prior to mounting funding appeals.

Meanwhile,
analog research activity of other organizations deserves close study.
The Society sent our own crew to the Mars Desert Research Station in
Utah, in early 2006 [crew 45], and learned much about what we'd like to copy, what we needed to do differently. The proposed Mars-Oz
analog station in the Arkoola region of the state of South Australia,
deserves study. In fact, we already have a website devoted to all of
this analog activity, www.moonbaseanalogs.net

Encouragement of Spin-Up Development of Technologies needed on the Moon

We
strongly support a much more vigorous technology development program,
than that so far engaged in by NASA. The idea is to identify
technologies needed on the Moon, but not yet in hand, then
brainstorming potentially profitable terrestrial applications, and
encouraging entrepreneurs to develop these technologies, in an at least
analogous form to what will be needed on the Moon, solely for those
potentially profitable terrestrial applications. It makes no sense to
take years to return to the Moon and only then start "ISRU" - on site
materials utilization - once we get there. Why stretch out into a
century developments that could be simultaneously developed in a decade?

Expansion of Moon Society Outreach beyond the English Speaking World

The
Moon Society will pursue the above directions with supporting public
outreach programs. The Society's current strong presence in English
Speaking Countries, including India where English is a common second
language, may expand next into the Spanish speaking world, as a result
of efforts the Society is encouraging in Chile and in Mexico.Development of updated public outreach media

Outside
of Moon Miners' Manifesto and the Moon Society Website, there is little
in the way of educational materials that supports the Society's
ambitious Vision and Mission Goals.

Financing the opening of the Lunar Frontier

The
Society's efforts cannot be limited to the support of any agency whose
purse strings are controlled by forces indifferent to our goals. The
attempt to develop space, space resources, and space frontiers, if left
to taxpayers, will ultimately fail. As a Society is in our own interest
to continue to help develop the rationale for prioritizing development
of needed technologies that can be supported by the market of
terrestrial consumers.

A Preamble to any Moon Treaty Revision

The
Society will lead an effort to identify areas and features
of special geological and scenic interest to be put on a list of
areas on the Moon in which development should be forbidden or carefully
restricted. If world-wide agreement is reached in this area, the fear
that humans will spoil the Moon, one of the major "stumbling block
issues" in the way of ratification of a Moon Treaty allowing resource
development and settlement, will have been addressed, and with that,
considerable Treaty opposition will be avoided.

The Moon Society needs You!

These
goals and initiatives are ambitious and bold. We need the support and
dedication of our growing membership base. If you are a member, please
show your support by renewing. If you are a former member, we believe that our focus and direction deserve your reconsideration. If you have never been a member of the Society but like what you see in our Vision and Mission Goals, please consider joining us, and encourage like-minded friends and others to do likewise.

The above serves as a sketch of a proposed, more detailed Policy Paper on which Society leaders are working.